Photo by Downtown Express / Jefferson Siegel
Lower Manhattan residents, local leaders and Alliance
members rallied outside Engine 4 firehouse in January.
FDNY cuts reduced its hours and shut the Island firehouse.
Lower Manhattan residents, local leaders and Alliance
members rallied outside Engine 4 firehouse in January.
FDNY cuts reduced its hours and shut the Island firehouse.
The 14 city firefighters based on the Island are gone, extinguished by budget cuts. The Fire Department says that this and reduced hours at four downtown Manhattan firehouses, will save $8.9 million a year.
The Alliance, in a January 7 letter to Mayor Bloomberg, called it "a shortsighted move that may place [Island] workers, public visitors and recently rehabilitated historic landmarks at risk." Moreover, the letter said, it may violate the responsible stewardship that the city and state pledged when they took back the Island from Washington's control.
National Park Service spokesman Darren Boch's comment added a point, that the construction and demolition work currently underway "has an inherent danger to it." GIPEC has made no public comment.
The Alliance letter requested an FDNY briefing, which was then held on January 27. Firefighters are now training GIPEC personnel and Turner Construction workers in handling emergencies. They would not replace firefighters, but might keep any blaze confined until regulars arrived. The firehouse remains closed.
Department officials have explained that the cutbacks applied to firehouses where there was relatively little activity. Other firehouses - or fireboats - can fill in when needed, he said. Firefighting and emergency equipment remains on the Island.
The FDNY had operated the firehouse since New York resumed control of the Island in 2003. It had stationed three firefighters there full time - two firefighters and an officer - on rotation from a pool of 14.
With the firehouse unmanned, the department said it would respond to emergencies from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn by fireboat or ferry. Opponents of the shutdown say that the responding time from off the Island will take too long.
"If it's an island with no one on it, that's one thing," said Tom Butler, a spokesman for the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "But it's an island with people on it; you need someone to respond and provide protection."
Ferrying firefighters to a fire on the Island could take as long as 20-30 minutes. The response time involves getting them to the ferry and then to the closed firehouse a mile away at the southern tip of the Island. A nighttime emergency would take even longer if it depended on the ferry or fireboat, because the engine would have to be warmed up.
The Alliance letter requested an FDNY briefing, which was then held on January 27. Firefighters are now training GIPEC personnel and Turner Construction workers in handling emergencies. They would not replace firefighters, but might keep any blaze confined until regulars arrived. The firehouse remains closed.
Department officials have explained that the cutbacks applied to firehouses where there was relatively little activity. Other firehouses - or fireboats - can fill in when needed, he said. Firefighting and emergency equipment remains on the Island.
The FDNY had operated the firehouse since New York resumed control of the Island in 2003. It had stationed three firefighters there full time - two firefighters and an officer - on rotation from a pool of 14.
With the firehouse unmanned, the department said it would respond to emergencies from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn by fireboat or ferry. Opponents of the shutdown say that the responding time from off the Island will take too long.
"If it's an island with no one on it, that's one thing," said Tom Butler, a spokesman for the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "But it's an island with people on it; you need someone to respond and provide protection."
Ferrying firefighters to a fire on the Island could take as long as 20-30 minutes. The response time involves getting them to the ferry and then to the closed firehouse a mile away at the southern tip of the Island. A nighttime emergency would take even longer if it depended on the ferry or fireboat, because the engine would have to be warmed up.